Top of the News: Mississippi payrolls fall for fourth month

JACKSON — Payrolls fell in Mississippi for the fourth straight month in August, reinforcing economists' judgment that the state is back in recession.

Employers said they had 1.08 million workers last month in Mississippi. That falls below the October 2009 low hit in the national recession, and is the lowest number of payroll jobs in the state since early 1996.

A second survey each month calculates the state's unemployment rate. That survey, which asks whether people have a job, showed that the jobless rate dipped to 9.1 percent in August from 9.2 in July.

Jobless levels have fallen from a post-recession peak of 10.9 percent in August 2011, but progress has stalled in recent months.

The number of unemployed Mississippians was steady at 122,000 from July to August, below August 2011's 147,000.

Teacher sentenced for sex with minor

PASCAGOULA — A former Ocean Springs Middle School teacher and wrestling coach has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 12 years to serve for sexual battery of a student.

The Sun Herald newspaper reports Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson ordered Grady Brown to serve the remainder of his sentence under post-release supervision and to pay $4,750 in fines.

Brown, 35, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery in July.

Brown was teaching seventh-grade math and coaching when authorities said he had a sexual relationship with a student who was 13 at the time for four months, ending in April 2011.

Oxford tightens down on parking

OXFORD — The city of Oxford now has new ordinances that make parking enforcement stricter around the premium spots on the Square.

The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously this week to change the two-hour parking limit from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

While the two-hour parking limit has only traditionally been enforced Monday through Friday, the ordinance already on the books allows for Saturday enforcement as well.

Standard Parking, a Chicago-based company hired by the city this summer to manage the parking downtown, will be enforcing the two-hour limit on Saturdays.

The first month under the new regulations, which begin in mid-October, will be citation-free, aimed at educating the public. After that, the first offense will be free, but subsequent violations will be increasingly costly, with fines up to $75. Unpaid fines or continuing offenses will result in towing or booting of vehicles.

Officials say the plan is aimed not at generating revenues but at giving all downtown visitors an equal chance at finding a parking place.

Mayor Pat Patterson has said that as the owner of a business on the Square, he worries some about the strict enforcement of the two-hour limit.

"But we have to start somewhere," Patterson said. "We have to do something. It's only going to get worse."